Polio Vaccine Sabin

About Polio Vaccine Sabin

Albert Sabin developed an oral polio vaccine using attenuated live virus. The Sabin vaccine was taken orally on a sugar cube rather than by injection. Sabin tested the vaccine on himself, his family, and prison volunteers. The vaccine was licensed in the US in 1961 and became the standard in most countries. The oral vaccine was easier to administer and provided intestinal immunity that prevented transmission. However, in rare cases the attenuated virus could revert to virulence, causing vaccine associated paralytic polio in roughly one case per few million doses. The US switched back to the Salk vaccine in 2000 to eliminate this risk. The global polio eradication campaign has relied heavily on oral polio vaccine alongside inactivated vaccine. Wild polio remains endemic only in Pakistan and Afghanistan.